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Updated: May 2, 2026

High Resolution Phonon-assisted Quasi-resonance Fluorescence Spectroscopy
Published on: June 28, 2016
Experimental Characterization of Defect-Induced Phonon Lifetime Shortening
Boyao Liu1, Jack Kelsall1, David J Ward1
1Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, 19 J J Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
We present the first direct experimental measurement of defect-induced lifetime shortening of acoustic surface phonons. Defects are found to contribute a temperature-independent component to the linewidths of Rayleigh wave phonons on a Ni(111) surface. We also characterized the increase in phonon scattering with both surface defect density and phonon wave vector. A quantitative estimate of the scattering rate between phonon modes and surface line defects is extracted from the experimental data for the first time.
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